Chief Change Officer
#391 Robert MacPhee: From Parking Cars to Coaching Clarity—Lessons from a Chicken Soup Insider — Part One
Sun, 25 May 2025
Before he was coaching CEOs or co-creating workshops with Jack Canfield, Robert MacPhee was parking cars. That detour became a defining feature—not a footnote.In Part One, Robert shares his unlikely path from backstage support to clarity coach. We explore why most people struggle to name their values, how he built the “Excellent Decisions” framework, and why aligning your choices with your core values is less about woo-woo ideals and more about long-term clarity.Forget vibes—this episode is about learning to steer your life with your own internal compass.Key Highlights of Our Interviews:From Jack Canfield to Clarity Coach“I had the great pleasure of working with Jack Canfield for close to 10 years… and then I developed Excellent Decisions, about making choices from vision and values.”How working with the Chicken Soup for the Soul co-founder led Robert to create his own framework for alignment and success.The Definition of Values (Without the Fluff)“Our values are what’s most important to us… the areas we want to put time and attention on, and how we want to show up in the world.”Robert demystifies “values” into two key categories—priorities and ways of being—and why this distinction matters.Dust-Free and Proud: How Values Show Up at Work“One company literally listed ‘dust-free’ as a core value—because they cared deeply about being a good neighbor.”A surprising story about a construction company that proves values don’t need to be lofty—they just need to be lived.A Workshop, a Wake-Up Call, and 35 Pounds Lost“She just got clear that health mattered. Seven weeks later, she lost 35 pounds.”Why values clarity can be more powerful than any diet plan, productivity hack, or goal-setting framework.Why Most People Can’t Name Their Values“Schools don’t teach it. Parents rarely do. We’re basically flying blind through life.”Robert explains why we inherit others’ values by default—and how to break the cycle with conscious exploration.____________________________Connect with us:Host: Vince Chan | Guest: Robert MacPhee --Chief Change Officer--Change Ambitiously. Outgrow Yourself.Open a World of Expansive Human Intelligencefor Transformation Gurus, Black Sheep,Unsung Visionaries & Bold Hearts.EdTech Leadership Awards 2025 Finalist.18 Million+ All-Time Downloads.80+ Countries Reached Daily.Global Top 1.5% Podcast.Top 10 US Business.Top 1 US Careers.>>>170,000+ are outgrowing. Act Today.<<<
Chapter 1: What led Robert MacPhee to become a clarity coach?
And as part of that, I ended up being the person in the organization who was handling all of the training and developing and hiring and growing our people and creating a culture, which I just absolutely loved. And eventually I loved it so much that I actually transitioned out of this parking company that we had created. My partner bought me out.
And I went into doing the training and development work on a full-time basis. And I had the opportunity to connect with an amazing man that many of your listeners have probably heard of. His name is Jack Canfield. He is best known as the co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul books. And he's well known for that because they sold over 600 million books worldwide.
I had the great pleasure and honor of working with him for close to 10 years on the training side of his company and learning from him and working with him.
And then eventually going out on my own, developing a concept that I called Excellent Decisions, which was about making decisions based on your vision and your values rather than all the external stress and pressure that we're faced with in today's world. Eventually, I narrowed that down even further and really focused mostly on values first.
Because I realized that it's great to have a really compelling and exciting vision. But if that vision isn't aligned with your values, then it's not going to take you where you really want to go.
So my work right now and the book that you referenced, the Living a Values-Based Life book, is really focused on first helping people to clarify what their most important values are so that they can then create a life and in many cases, create an organization or a business that lines up with those values.
By your own definition, what exactly are values?
You're right. It is a really big term and we can go really deep into it. And I love doing that. That's what really energizes me around this whole conversation. And at the same time, in my experience, when we talk about what values actually are, it can be a very simple answer. The answer I would give is that our values are what is most important to us.
If we are really clear about the areas of our life that are most important to us and the ways that we want to show up in the world, like how we want to be in the world, the most important, what we call ways of being, then it fundamentally changes our life. Most people do not know or cannot articulate at least what their highest values are.
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Chapter 2: How are values defined without the fluff?
But she made a commitment to really put that time and attention to stop doing some of the things that maybe weren't as important to her and weren't on her highest values list and put some of that time and attention towards taking better care of herself, exercising and eating better. And this was all behind the scenes to me.
I did not even know we had, I think 15 or 20 people participating in this workshop. And I didn't even know this was happening, but I heard the story afterwards. So we went through the rest of the sessions and we had a session about ways of being, and then we had a session about how to implement this work into your life. And then we had a session to review and check in with people.
And then we, at the end of the seven weeks, we had a final session and I was asking for feedback from the group and asking, What people had noticed as they had been in this conversation about values and this woman, again, virtual class. So she virtually raised her hand and she shared that over the course of the seven weeks, she had lost 35 pounds. And I asked her, I was honestly shocked.
I've seen people get great results and I know the power of clarifying values, but there was something about all this happening just invisibly to me. And 35 pounds in seven weeks is a pretty significant result. And I asked her and she didn't make a big deal of it or anything. It was just very simple to her in that first session.
she got very clear about what is most important to her and so clear that she was compelled to take action. And again, we had a session about how to do that and how to apply it, but she got into action before we even got to that session. And she simply started doing the things that people who prioritize their health and fitness do. She exercised, she was walking, and she was just eating better.
She threw away a bunch of junk food and bought herself some really good quality fruits and vegetables and good quality food. And she just acted differently over the course of those seven weeks and got the result of losing 35 pounds. And for me, it was a very compelling example of how simple it can be when we get clarity about what's most important to us.
It becomes far less of a case of having to work hard and put a lot of effort into something and struggle She just changed. You're the chief change officer, right? You know what I'm talking about? Like when people get really clear about something else that you already talked about in this conversation, their why, like why this is important and how important it really is.
then getting into action and making changes becomes much easier. And then the second story I would share, just what comes to mind as you ask the question, is more of a professional example. And it's a company that I worked with recently that was a construction company And they actually recycle concrete. So it's not the most glamorous company in the world.
But I had the opportunity and go in and meet with their leadership team and do values work with them personally about their personal values and then transition that into some organizational values. And when we were doing the organizational values, I literally, I wasn't sure how this was going to go with a company like that. Because again, it's a very, these are hard hat guys.
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Chapter 3: What surprising ways do values show up at work?
They're out in the yard and they're doing the work and recycling the concrete. And sometimes the kind of work I do is a little woo and a little strange for them. But they really engaged in the conversation and they let me push them beyond the initial question of what do you do and to go a little bit deeper. And we created this remarkable list
of the things that they do in this construction company. And the very first answer was easy. They said, we recycle concrete. I said, great. I put it up on the board. I said, what else do you do? And they looked at me like I was crazy. And I said, no, really, what else? That's not the only thing you do here. What else do you do?
Think about your other stakeholders, your coworkers and your clients and your community. What else do you do? And And somebody raised their hand and said, we innovate, like we think of new and better ways to do this. And that kind of got the ball rolling. And then somebody said, we create opportunities for our people here.
We're really committed to developing our people and helping them move their career along. And they went on and on and created this wonderful list of the things that they do beyond just recycling concrete. And you could just feel the energy in the group change because it's easier to get excited about creating opportunities for your coworkers.
And it's easier to get excited about contributing to your community or innovating and being the very best at what you do than simply looking at it as we recycle concrete. That's what we do. And then the other thing that was super fun about working with that particular company, they really were committed to contributing to their community. And they weren't a great neighbor.
Being a construction company and a concrete recycling company, there was a lot of mess that they made. So when we were doing the ways of being, we were like, how do you do what you do? For the first time ever, and I'm pretty sure the last time this will ever happen, one of their ways of being was dust free.
And we all had a good laugh over that, but it was also really profound because they were very committed to being a good neighbor, to contributing to their community and being an asset in the community. And if we're making a big mess all over the place, they didn't feel like they were doing that.
So they had all sorts of things they were doing to mitigate this problem of just making the whole neighborhood kind of dusty. So Dust Free, they were the first company or the first individual I ever had come up with a way of being that was really important to them called Dust Free.
Dust Free? As in D-U-S-T Dust Free?
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Chapter 4: Why is it difficult for most people to name their values?
Exactly. But without really making an effort to do what they do in the cleanest way possible, they would leave, there would be dust in the air all around where their yard was. There would be dust on the streets. There would be dust floating over the fence and to the neighbor's property, all those things. But they were genuinely, again, the...
Dust Free was really a manifestation of their commitment to being a good neighbor, to being a contributor to their community rather than just a nuisance, if you will. And they were serious about it. They had all these technology and all these systems and structure in place to minimize this problem that they had of just making a mess while they do the work that they do.
You can imagine if you're crushing concrete, there's going to be some dust and they were doing everything they possibly could to minimize that so that they were a good neighbor.
If values are so transformative and essential in shaping behavior and driving success, why do you think most people are unaware of their own values? Is it because they haven't taken the time to reflect? Or is it something deeper, like societal distractions, external pressures, or even a lack of understanding about how to identify values in the very first place?
I'd love to hear your perspective on this.
I think the simplest reason why most people either don't know or can't clearly articulate their values is that it's generally not taught in the places that we most learn things. So in school, it's generally not taught.
And from our parents, there may be some good modeling of values, but in terms of actually facilitating a process where people can explore and really tap into what their highest values are, most parents aren't taught how to do that. They don't know. If you ask them to do that, they would want their children to have really good modeling of values, and they're doing the best they can with that.
To actually really draw someone's values out of them is not always an easy thing to do, and it doesn't happen. I have clients who say, I'd like to do a one-hour workshop and wrap all this up. And I say, yeah, I'd like to do that too. But you know what? It doesn't really work that way. I was working this past week
with the second step of a process with a very large client that i'm working with and the truth is we have three or four more steps to go to really get them to a place where they're clear and in agreement about what their team's highest values are and in a position to really remember them keep them visible and most importantly actually apply them put them into action have them be useful
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Chapter 5: What are the two key categories of values?
And I think that's the answer to your second question is about why are values so important is if we don't have that clarity, we're navigating through the world almost with like our hands over our eyes, like we're trying to move forward. But we don't have a target. We don't have a compass to really direct us to the place that we ultimately want to go.
Again, it may be directed by someone else or something else. We're told in our society, we need to make more money. We need a nicer car. We need a bigger house. And I have no problem with any of those things. But I think we all know people who are on that chase. They're in that game. And they're not happy. They're not fulfilled. They're not satisfied.
They don't have a sense of purpose and meaning. And in many cases, they're not producing as much in the way of results as they potentially could if they were laser focused on what is most important to them and how this result they're trying to create is in alignment with that. So, for instance, for me, I can talk about wanting to make more money.
But if I'm making that money to help pay for my daughter's wedding, that's going to have an entirely different level of meaning and purpose and significance for me. And I'm going to be so much more committed to making money for that. I already told you that's my top value is my relationships with my children.
So if it's specifically intended to improve those relationships, then I'm much more motivated in that area of money. Money is just a made up concept. It's really just a way to exchange value. And so when we are really clear about what that money means to us, like what it will allow us to do, how it will change our life in a positive way, being measured by what our values are.
then again, we just get much more motivated, much more inspired, much more engaged. And I know in my own case, like work cannot feel like work. And that's the way I want to live my life.
Absolutely. You've touched on something so critical. Figuring out our values is challenging because, as you said, within absorbing others' expectation, whether from parents, schools, peers, or society, like a sponge for years, And when we don't consciously question or explore those imposed values, we can feel stuck or out of place without even understanding why.
In the workplace, this disconnect often manifests as frustration, disengagement, or being labeled as not a team player. But as you pointed out, is rarely about competence or work ethics. It's about a values mismatch.
If we take the time to understand our core values, it not only helps us find better alignment with a company or a team, but also enables us to navigate the environment more strategically we can identify where things resonate and where they don't, which teams and leaders share a similar outlook, and how to bridge gaps when values diverge.
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Chapter 6: How can values clarity lead to personal transformation?
I can't explain the math. It's so far over my head, but she's actually helping the organization take that data and make it useful, make it helpful to develop new vaccines and help people who already have AIDS or prevent people from getting AIDS to begin with. So it's a different level of excitement and engagement for her because it aligns with her personal values.
Just now, Robert shared with us what values really mean, why they matter for leading fulfilling careers and lives, and why figuring out our values can be challenging. In part two, we'll explore how to make our values more visible and sustainable in a world that is constantly changing and noisy. Come back and join us tomorrow. Thank you so much for joining us today. If you like what you heard,
Don't forget, subscribe to our show, leave us top-rated reviews, check out our website, and follow me on social media. I'm Vince Chen, your ambitious human host. Until next time, take care.